(CNN) - Laura Bush and Sarah Palin have rarely crossed paths, but the two will appear at the same North Carolina forum this June.

Bush and Palin are the featured speakers at the Blueridge Educational Resource Group "Women's Expo" on June 5 in Charlotte, the group confirms. Bush, the former first lady, will speak at 1 p.m. ET following a VIP luncheon while Palin will address the crowd at 4 p.m. ET. The former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee will also hold a book signing for the first 75 people who purchase the $300-a-piece tickets.

The group says a portion of the proceeds will go to the Victory Junction Gang, a camp for chronically ill children in North Carolina.

Blueridge Educational Resource Group describes itself as a non-profit corporation "whose purpose is to affect the issues that plague our society such as poverty, drug abuse, and teen pregnancy in a positive manner using every means possible."

Former First Lady Laura Bush will give a paid speech in Michigan in March.

(CNN) - Laura Bush will deliver a paid speech to the Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan in March, one of select few public appearances the former first lady has made since departing the White House last January.

Her March 16 visit to Benton Harbor, Michigan, a town on Lake Michigan, comes roughly a year after her husband addressed the same group and offered a defense of his administration's use of harsh interrogations tactics.

Laura Bush's remarks aren't likely to be as politically-tinged: The group is promoting the speech by highlighting her record on early childhood development and women's issues.

Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will also address the Economic Club in May. Palin and the Bushes are clients of the Washington Speakers Bureau.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Former first lady Laura Bush is defending President Obama's decision to address the nation's school children, telling CNN Monday that it is "really important for everyone to respect the President of the United States."

"I think that there is a place for the President of the United States to talk to school children and encourage school children, and I think there are a lot of people that should do the same," she told CNN's Zain Verjee, in an interview set to air Monday on The Situation Room. "And that is encourage their own children to stay in school and to study hard and to try to achieve the dream that they have."

The former first lady said she believed criticism of the speech had arisen because of the accompanying lesson plans. If parents are opposed to the address, said Bush, "That's their right. You know that certainly is the right of parents to choose what they want their children to hear in school… (But) I think it's also really important for everyone to respect the President of the United States."

Does she think it's fair to criticize Obama, as some have, by labeling him a socialist? "I'd have no idea whether it's fair, do you think I thought it was fair when President Bush was criticized - not really. So, I guess not," she responded.

(CNN) - Former First Lady Laura Bush - who has kept a low profile since her husband's administration came to an end - is speaking out on a cause she championed while in the White House: the ongoing situation in Burma.

In a Washington Post op-ed set to be published in the paper's Sunday edition, Bush draws parallels between the events in Iran and Burma (Myanmar), and urges the United Nations to press the ruling regime there to end human rights abuses.

"In the past 21 months, the number of political prisoners incarcerated by the junta has doubled," Bush writes in the op-ed. "Within the past 10 days, two Burmese citizens were sentenced to 18 months in prison. Their offense: praying in a Buddhist pagoda for the release of the jailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. That is only the tip of the regime's brutality."

Suu Kyi, under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years, had been expected to be freed by the military junta last month, until the new subversion charge was filed. Suu Kyi is accused of violating her house arrest by offering temporary shelter to American John William Yettaw, who swam to her lakeside home on May 3. She said she doesn't know Yettaw, didn't know of his plans and didn't do anything wrong.

Her supporters say the arrest is meant to keep her confined so she cannot participate in the general elections that the junta has scheduled for next year. President Obama urged for her release last month.

In her op-ed, Bush also says the ruling regime has forced tens of thousands of child soldiers into its army, closed churches and mosques, and imprisoned comedians and bloggers who take aim at the government.

"With U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon planning to visit Burma this summer, it is crucial that he press the regime to take immediate steps to end human rights abuses, particularly in ethnic minority areas," writes Bush. "There have been 38 U.N. resolutions condemning these abuses, yet the horrors continue unabated. Under the junta's brutal rule, too many lives have been wasted, lives whose talents could have helped all of Burma prosper."

Former first lady Laura Bush said she knew why Cheney is speaking out - and why her husband isn't.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Former first lady Laura Bush said Monday she knows why former Vice President Dick Cheney feels the need to attack President Obama's policies, and publicly defend his own administration's legacy.

But she explained why her husband, former President George Bush, has not given any public interviews or commented critically on the new administration since leaving office in January.

"I think that's [Cheney's] right as a citizen of the U.S., and I think he also feels obligated, and so I understand why he wants to speak out," Laura Bush said in an interview on ABC's Good Morning America broadcast Monday. "On the other hand, George feels like as a former president that he owes President Obama his silence on issues, and that there's no reason to second guess any decisions that he makes."

Former President Bush said Thursday that it is 'much harder to be the son of the president than to be the president.'

BENTON HARBOR, Michigan (CNN) - Former President George W. Bush said Thursday that if Laura Bush hadn't been first lady, he isn't sure he could have counted on her vote.

"I can promise you that her life dream when she was growing up was not to be first lady of the United States," he told a Michigan audience in one of his first major domestic speeches since leaving the White House. "Frankly, I am not so sure that if we hadn't married she'd have voted for me."

Bush continued: "There's a lot of pressure in the White House as I'm sure you can imagine. Pressure sometimes can make a marriage stronger or weaker. In my case because of her patience and her enthusiasm, it made our marriage a really good marriage."

The pressure of the presidency, he said, weighs most on family members.

"It's much harder to be the son of the president than to be the president. And it's much harder to be the father of the president than to be the president," he said. "And I used to have to admonish him not pay attention to what they were writing on the editorial pages about his son. I had gone through the same agony myself. And so I am confident that the end of the presidency is a great relief because of our strong love."

Former first lady Laura Bush said she and her husband are back to their old routine in Dallas, Texas.

(CNN) –- Just over a month since they left 1600 Pennsylvania Ave for a quiet Dallas neighborhood, former first lady Laura Bush said she and her husband are “back to our old routine.”

In her first post-White House interview, the former first lady told ABC News that she and former President George W. Bush were enjoying coffee together every morning, holding dinner parties with friends, and dealing with the hunt for furniture. “Life is great,” she said.

"We have very little furniture. We don't have a kitchen table or a dining room table," said Bush. "Friends loaned me a kitchen table, and the other night I had 16 people for dinner, and I had to borrow chairs from the Secret Service next door.”

Laura Bush says her husband is meeting the neighbors, making trips to the hardware store, and catching up on some reading via a Kindle. His latest read is a novel given to him for Christmas by former Vice President Dick Cheney.

And while Laura Bush lived and breathed politics for the last eight years, the former first lady said she did not watch President Obama's first address to Congress because she simply forgot.

The President and First Lady will attend a welcome home event in Midland, Texas on Inauguration Day.

(CNN) –- The White House said Wednesday President Bush will go directly to Midland, Texas after leaving Washington on Inauguration Day.

White House spokesperson Dana Perino said the President and First Lady Laura Bush will leave Andrews Air Force Base, and fly to Midland for a “welcome home event” in Centennial Plaza on the town square. They will fly on one of the jets he used as Air Force One during his presidency, though it will have a different designation that day.

Midland was the site of his send-off rally when he left for Washington before taking office in January 2001. The president lived in Midland as he was growing up, and it is the first lady’s hometown.

The President and Mrs. Bush will then fly to Waco, and go to their ranch in Crawford for the first night after leaving the White House.

The famously private First Lady will publish a candid memoir about her time spent living in the White House.

(CNN) – First Lady Laura Bush has secured a book deal with Scribner to publish her memoir, which promises to include “intimate” details about her eight years living in the White House.

Mrs. Bush, the famously private First Lady, consistently remained popular among Americans even as her husband’s approval rating dropped lower and lower. Scribner did not announce how much it is paying Mrs. Bush for her book.

Scribner, a division of Simon and Schuster, won a bidding war among top publishers for the rights to publish her memoir. Scribner editor-in-chief Nan Graham, will edit the book, which is scheduled to be published in 2010.

“As a rare witness to the private moments of one of our country’s most consequential presidencies, and as a First Lady who has maintained a notable level of discretion, her memoir will provide a candid and personal perspective, and an enduring record, of the years that have already determined the course of the 21st century,” Susan Moldow, executive vice president and publisher of Scribner, said in a press release.